War Of The Worlds (2005)

War Of The Worlds – Divorced father of two, Ray Ferrier, is struggling to maintain a relationship with his kids, Robbie and Rachel. Shortly after his ex-wife drops them off with him, an alien machine emerges from the ground nearby and begins killing dozens of people. Seeing everything close-up, Ray takes Robbie and Rachel away from the carnage in an attempt to escape, however it soon becomes clear that the machines are all over the world and a full-scale invasion threatens to wipe out mankind. With danger seemingly around every corner, Ray has to take responsibility and put his kids first if he is to stand any chance of saving them from a terrible fate.

War of the Worlds (2005) – Director: Steven Spielberg

Rating: 12

Running Length: 116 mins

Starring: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Tim Robbins

Genre: Science Fiction

REVIEW: ‘WAR OF THE WORLDS (2005)’

Loosely based upon the novel ‘The War of the Worlds’ by H. G. Wells, this adaptation follows a very ordinary man that audience members can relate to, putting him in an extreme situation where, not only does he need to keep himself alive but he also has to protect his children. The aliens are relentless and do not discriminate when it comes to killing or capturing any humans that they find. Usually playing the role of an action hero, it is a refreshing change that Cruise’s character in this movie struggles to cope, makes mistakes and often doesn’t know what to do for the best.

What mainly lets this movie down is the unrealistic teenage son, Robbie. His younger sister, Rachel, is prone to panic attacks and he is the only who can calm her down. Robbie’s desire to fight the aliens is clearly supposed to be a teenage will to make a difference, but either through poor scripting or poor acting, simply comes across as a selfish boy paying no thought to the sister who depends on him. Audience empathy runs rather low when Ray, finding it hard to keep Rachel safe, is caught in a moment of such blunt choice making that the choice itself doesn’t take as believable. When the family dynamic upon which ‘War Of The Worlds’ relies for much of its second Act is so heavy-handed, the film itself suffers. However, the gripping third Act – plunging a desperate Ray and terrified Rachel into constant danger – manages to mostly repair the damage.

‘War of the Worlds’ is a very unusual movie which could have gone down the typical ‘action’ route with plenty of explosions and Cruise kicking alien butt, however the more realistic approach taken by Spielberg makes it much more appealing and human. While it may not be for everyone and the realism could be too strong for kids at times, ‘War of the Worlds’ is an interesting and exciting example of science fiction brought down to Earth.

CONTENT: IS ‘WAR OF THE WORLDS (2005)’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

There are several violent and frightening scenes throughout this movie which may be too intense for younger viewers. To ensure that we don’t list every single one of these scenes and therefore potentially ruin the movie for you, we have detailed the strongest moments as children who can cope with them should be ok with the rest. It should be noted however that once the action starts, it is constant until the end so this could make it too strong for lots of kids.

Early on in the movie, in a long and suspenseful scene, an alien ship emerges from the ground and after a short amount of time begins an attack. A large beam of light begins to vaporise dozens of people into ash. As they try to escape, the beam moves over them and they disappear into a cloud of ash and their clothes fly into the air. There is a close up of a woman’s face who is running but is caught by the beam, she cries out as her face and body disintegrate into nothing and, while there is no blood or gore in these deaths, these moments are likely to be quite distressing for kids who are able to understand what is happening. One character runs for his life among those who are being killed, when he manages to get to safety, he is covered in ash and is visibly traumatised by not only what he has seen but also by the realisation of what the ash is.

Ray, Robbie and Rachel try to escape the carnage in a car, however they soon come across a large group of people who are all on foot. There is then an intense scene where these people turn on them and then fight amongst themselves to take the car. Ray and Robbie get dragged out of the car but Rachel is left inside and is unable to get out as people are pushing their way in. This is very distressing as she is a young girl who is on the verge of being taken away from her family by total strangers that are acting in an irrational and aggressive way. This scene includes a gun being used to strongly threaten one of the characters and a minor character is shot in the head – this is shown in the background and a large splatter of blood can be seen on a window.

Perhaps the strongest moment of the movie is when it is made clear what the aliens are doing to their human captives. There are bloody vines along every surface and Ray looks out of a window as a man is lowered onto the ground by one of the alien tripods out of shot (although his legs can still be seen). The tripod then lowers a sharp instrument down towards the man which then suddenly and violently stabs him; his legs jerk but quickly stop as he is obviously dead. Ray watches this macabre scene with a look of horror on his face. He also realises that this is why there is red mist all around; the aliens drain the blood of humans and spray it around them as a form of fertiliser.

One character is forced to murder another due to their irrational and sometimes crazy behaviour which threatens the safety of others. This scene is quite drawn out and the tone of it is very dark. While the character is being killed in a different room, the camera focuses on a child who is visibly upset and is aware of what is happening. While the murder is done off camera and with only ambiguous dialogue, this scene is likely to be upsetting for a lot of children as they will identify with the child on-screen and will understand the trauma that she is going through.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘WAR OF THE WORLDS (2005)’ FOR KIDS?

Many viewers would expect this to be an all-out action movie with Tom Cruise being a charismatically cocky hero so the decision to have an ordinary man who spends most of his time afraid and upset as the story’s protagonist was brave. This however makes the movie more endearing as it shows what might actually happen to people if they were forced into this kind of scenario and expects them to find inner strength to help them to survive.

Due to some strong moments of violence and several frightening scenes, we would not recommend this movie for kids under the age of 12.

• Violence: 4/5 (relatively infrequent but strong, dozens of people are killed in horrific ways which are either shown on camera or strongly implied)
• Emotional Distress: 3/5 (one character is likely to have been killed and their family struggle to accept his fate)
• Fear Factor: 5/5 (A child sees several bodies floating in water. The aliens are in several intense scenes and the tripods are imposing and frightening. The main characters spend the majority of the movie in shock and are visibly traumatised by what they have seen)
• Sexual Content: 0/5       
• Bad Language: 4/5 (frequent moderate cursing and blasphemy, particularly in the first fifteen minutes)
• Dialogue: 2/5    
• The movie also deals with divorced parents and the children struggling to come to terms with the split, blaming their father. The kids live with their mother who has a new partner and is pregnant. Many children will be able to identify with this situation and could find it hard to deal with.
• Other notes: Deals with themes of panic, mob mentality, divorced parents, putting others first in dangerous situations, doing terrible things for the greater good and survivalism.

Words by Laura Record

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